


The Mad Scientist

by TQ121



Series: The Most Exquisite Corpse [5]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21700429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TQ121/pseuds/TQ121
Summary: An old associate of Rhys' visits Jack's clinic and secrets are spilled.The Most Exquisite Corpse continues...
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)
Series: The Most Exquisite Corpse [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1385848
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27





	The Mad Scientist

**Author's Note:**

> This series and world was built by [Dauverney](https://dauverney.tumblr.com/) and I.

Weeks turned into months, and slowly and surely as spring turned into summer, summer turned into fall. Rhys grew accustomed to missing his right arm, and the steady but dead weight of his prosthetic. Jack was smart enough not to bring up Rhys deformed ribs again, but instead managed to actually teach Rhys the ins and outs of his practice.

When he wasn't simply being obnoxious.

"Pumpkin, I need the back swept up, Nisha dragged in something, mud, blood, worse, I don't know. But my patients don't need to see it."

Signing Rhys went to the broom closet and asked. "Do you even know what a pumpkin is?"

"It's a gourd from the Americas." Smirking he turned around to face Rhys. "Would you rather I called you something else? Rhysie? Chuckaboo?"

Rhys grabbed the broom from the closet more forcefully than he meant to. "You are insufferable."

"You love it." Jack grinned as he watched Rhys making his way to the back.

He didn't hear Rhys respond, but Jack knew Rhys couldn't ignore him for long.

Jack almost left the front to torment Rhys some more when the door opened to reveal a scandalous woman.

Tannis stood in the doorway in trousers and a red single breasted coat. Her hair was a messy bun that would fill most ladies with shame, but for Tannis it was the least of her problems as she stormed right up to Jack.

Jack let out a long suffering groan as he recognized her.

She didn’t care about being a frustration she only cared about getting what she needed. Throwing out her arms out in disgust she began her rant. "Look what you've made me do. I had to come out here and make my way through the slobbering masses because you didn't bring my body last night."

“Lady, could you not talk about that here in the front room.” Jack answered sharply. “Wilhelm’s your contact. Take it up with him.”

“You mean that overgrown mouth breather with a glass eye?” Tannis huffed looking down her nose at Jack. “His facial hair threatens to take over his own face and any room he enters. It's not sanitary. My lab is exactly the way I need it and beard threatens everything I worked hard for, and then he had the gall to refuse me my body. Refused me! Over something as insignificant as money. I have studies i can’t put on pause, and he is denying me valuable specimens!”

“That's because you owe me 30 pounds.” Jack answered. 

“30 pounds, 30 pounds! It doesn’t matter” She interrupted. “It’s just money, this is my research!”

He clenched his hands tightly together. Jack couldn’t lose it. He wasn’t in the army any more. Louder he told her. “This is a business not a charity! Wilhelm’s roughed people up for less, but your a lady. And as gentlemen we don’t beat up ladies, but I’m not letting you have another body until you pay me back.”

“I’d rather you killed me than denied me my research subjects.”

In the back Rhys swept as well as he could with only one functioning arm. At least his prosthetic could help support the broom, but actually maintaining proper form was difficult at best. If he was any less stubborn he would have asked Jack for help, but he wasn’t going to give in. Instead he was going to prove himself just as able as anyone, even if it put undue stress on his shoulders and back.

His intense concentration forced him not to notice the familiar voice until Tannis’ demands reached a fever pitch.

Sneaking up he peeked into the front room, and he saw the only women he knew who could be so slovenly dressed and as demanding as a princess.

For one brief second her eyes met his, and Rhys ducked back behind the door.

Tannis’ arguments stopped and so did her attention to Jack. “Who was that shifty fellow? I’ve seen him before.”

“Just my apprentice.” Jack answered offhandedly. “Now are you going to pay up or am I going to have to send Nisha over to make you pay up. She’ll mess you and your lab up, and won’t give one hoot that you’re a lady.”

Waving her hand at Jack, Tannis pushed past him. “Yes, yes, threaten all you like, but I've seen that man before.”

“Lady if you don’t get out of here I’m going to have to dirty my own hands.”

Tannis just ignored him, and pushed the door fully open. Pressed tightly against the wall was Rhys, eyes closed in prayer to a higher power.

He was never so lucky.

“Its you!” Tannis pointed at Rhys.

In a flash Rhys was pushing her against the wall, and shoving his left hand over her mouth.

“Shhhh!”

Jack’s rage morphed into curiosity, and he stepped into the hall way to find out what was going on. “What was that?”

Rhys’s eyes darted over to Jack wildly as he pushed his hand harder against her face. “Nothing, she’s just hysterical. She probably just needs a sedative.”

Desperately he glanced over to Jack hoping he would just roll with it, uncaring with how Tannis’ lips snarled under his hand. At least until she raised her heeled boot, and dug it hard into Rhys foot.

“Ow!”

Bouncing back Rhys let her go hissing in pain.

“Keep your filthy mitts off me.” Distressed she rubbed her arms and shivered. “It's going to take weeks to get rid of the feeling of your hands.”

“Hand.” Rhys corrected pedantically. “I only have one so its hand.”

“Really Strongford, I don’t see how you have any right to correct anyone.” Tannis shot back bitterly. “Everyone knows you killed and dissected that servant girl. Worse you were caught. How sloppy can you be.”

In her own world she didn’t see the way Rhys’ face hardened or how Jack froze and stared in shock. 

“Well at least you didn't take the cowards way out. The police said you jumped into the Thames, shows you what little they know. Though maybe working under a ruffian like this is worse than the eternal torment of a suicide.”

“I didn’t kill her…” Rhys protested, and hugged himself with his arm. “She had consumption, and it would be foolish to let her go rot pointlessly in the ground.”

“People don’t usually just fall over and die from consumption.” Jack raised an eyebrow with an otherwise blank face. “Otherwise the romantics wouldn’t write about the slow wasting away like it was some kind of gift to cough up blood till you died.”

“Whether he did or not hardly matters.” Tannis argued. “You got caught, and here I thought you were at least somewhat competent.”

She looked up at Rhys with what could only be described as disappointment. “Or at least let me have a look at her.”

Backing away from Tannis Rhys rolled his eyes. “Yeah well Jack still has the sketches I was able to make from the partial autopsy. So you have to bring it up with him.”

Tannis’ eyes lit up and she turned to Jack smiling in a way she probably thought was coy, but it was more akin to a shark.

“No, you owe me money!” Jack pointed at her firmly.

“Money, money, money! That's all you care about money...”

She stopped speaking, and looking at the way her lips quirked up a bit in an actual natural fashion Rhys backed away as she looked at him.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.” Rhys waved his hand in front of him and backed away. “I’m not getting into this.”

But Tannis just looked at Jack, and pointed at Rhys. “You’re harboring a fugitive! A fugitive who murdered a woman to dissect her! And you’re a resurrectionist.”

Resting her head on a hand she grinned even wider. “What would the cops think if they found out. Even if you could bribe enough of them a juicy story like this will get to the public, and you could have a riot on your hands.”

She shrugged at Rhys whose eyes were wide and his fingers scratched at his wooden arm. “Nothing personal. I’m just being a good subject of the king. Unless…”

Jack held her gaze before glancing up at Rhys. He looked ready to bolt.

“I could just give him up before you do, and I’ll be fine.” 

Rhys looked at Jack with betral, but before he could do something stupid Jack continued. “But for now you can look at his notes. He’s my apprentice so they belong to me now and so does his well being.”

Jack wasn’t sure why he cared that much, but the thought of Rhys going to the authorities and most likely the hangman’s noose left a sour taste in his mouth.

“And I want all the bodies I need for my studies!” Tannis insisted. “The notes are just to tide me over until you send me the body you owe me.”

Rhys stayed frozen his eyes darting back and forth between Tannis and Jack. He couldn’t blame Tannis, she always put herself above everyone. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Jack, but the idea of being turned over by him made his stomach roll. He actually liked Jack.

“Fine, I will have Wilhelm send a body over tomorrow night. A  _ paying  _ customer got the other one.” Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. “You are the biggest pain, lady.”

“Yes insult me all you want, I got what I needed.” Tannis then flattened her coat with her hands.

“And Mr. Strongford I expect to see you soon for tea. I need the advice of someone who isn’t completely empty headed on my next experiment. For some reason the other students just bawk at my ideas and start incessantly talking about god and how my work laughs in the face of him or something. If god really has a problem he should just come and tell me myself.” Snorting at their stupidity she left triumphantly.

Rhys cautiously meet Jacks gaze.

Jack sneered and pointed at Rhys. “We need to talk.”


End file.
